


Why Should Ben Get All The Fun?

by Kariachi



Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: (because this is me this is what i do), Alien Biology, Gen, Kevin's Soap Opera Life, Kid Fic, Nesting, Osmosians Exist, Pregnancy, Some Vore and Murder, Trans Character, and others - Freeform, egg death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-10 12:35:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17426018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kariachi/pseuds/Kariachi
Summary: When Team Tennyson finally headed off on their roadtrip they expected a nice, chill time. The poor, naive fools...





	1. Chapter 1

In the end the Galactic Roadtrip had been delayed a year, because there is no plan Kevin’s biology will not laugh at for its impudence. Phones had hardly been hung up when the final swan song of Osmosian puberty struck, and nobody tried to hold off pupating if they valued the lives of those around them. He’d ended up tearing up a chunk of floor in one of the Argitstix storerooms, digging deep to add another den to his ever-growing number, and building a pupa there, where a building, a load of Techadon robots, and Argit stood between him and anyone or thing that would threaten him.

Not that that list was very long. Or, well, maybe it was, but nobody could see how it would work. The construction was a patchwork of stone, steel, cement, even _taedanite_ of all things, that took up every inch of the den. How was anything supposed to get in? How was he supposed to get out? Calls to various Osmosians had been reassuring (struggles breaking free of pupa were rare, and the teams had Tetramand available if need be), but still it was a long five months waiting for him to emerge as a solid adult. Nobody was looking forward to Manny and Ben trying to not only _get_ to the den but also smash that stupid thing open.

But it didn’t come to that. He emerged fine, an absolute wall of black scutes, massive teeth, claws, and a muscular tail longer than Argit was tall. It took time for him to adjust to the new shape, new vocal cords (“How is your accent _worse_?!” “Fuck off, Tennyson.”), but within a month everything was more-or-less back to normal. Unfortunately though, by that point classes were ongoing and Gwen had Plans, so it was agreed to hold off until the upcoming summer to start the team’s travelling.

That’s a _really long time_ to leave a grown Levin to their own devices…


	2. Chapter 2

Kevin starts the trip in a bad mood for reasons he really doesn’t know. Normally he loves leaving Earth behind him, out to space where nobody asks questions, makes assumptions, looks twice, but this time as they leave his mane bristles and a growl lodges itself in his throat. Ben writes it off as one of his ‘moods’. Gwen, on the other hand, hugs him until the tension in his shoulders begins to lessen, and because by now they’ve learned that if your Osmosian isn’t eating a small household per day he isn’t healthy, Rook provides constant snack offers.

Nobody considers turning around.

~~

One week in and things are only getting worse as time goes by. Things aren’t right, somehow, and the fact he’s feeling this way on his own ship makes it worse. His spiraling mood grates on the Tennysons’, which grates on his, which grates on theirs, in a nasty loop they’ve been through before. Rook does his best to keep things from escalating, but there’s only so much one man can do. His job eventually becomes keeping Ben out of Kevin’s way, which he does admirably.

~~

There’s no unused space in any of Kevin’s builds. It’s something he’s normally quite proud of, every square inch packed full of more things than it should ever hold thanks to clever engineering and use of pocket dimensions. Right now though, right now it doesn’t work for him. He needs a space, his own space, that doesn’t smell like Rook, that’s solid all around. No pocket dimensions with who-knew-what at their edges, no tiny spaces where he can’t turn around. A proper den, he needs a proper den with proper walls.

Soon, whenever he’s not piloting, the others can find him not far from the bunks, Zed at his back, food to one side, building an alcove from layers and layers of heavy steel.

~~

“Come on, Kevin, you’ve haven’t left the Rustbucket III for the past two planets. You _need_ fresh air.” 

“Plus, the point of this trip is for us all to see the galaxy _together_ , not for you to hole up by yourself all the time.”

“Guys, I just don’t-”

“It’ll be fun, we promise.”

It’s not fun. He’s tense the whole time, surrounded by strangers, far from his territory, far from his den. And when a Plumber claps a hand on his shoulder, leaning around him to speak to Rook, even _he_ doesn’t have time to think before his teeth have sheared off half the hand.

The snack isn’t worth the mess.

~~

Not until three weeks in, curled up in his den with an egg under his palm and contractions ongoing, does he figure out what the fuck is going on. ‘It’s times like this,’ he thinks, ‘that having more Ossys in my life would be helpful.’

Zed’s a good dog and stays nearby for the entire laying process. Not _in the den_ of course, she’s not stupid and it had only taken the one snarl for her to learn it was off limits, but she lays in the hall the entire time, whining sympathetically. After he’s done, plus some time to rest and trill comfort and reassurance to her, she rises to her feet and fetches the others unprompted. 

They all crowd about in the hall, knelt down to see inside the relatively small entrance. Gwen is at the head of the group, but all three pairs of eyes blow wide at the seven glowing eggs- the only source of light- carefully arranged against Kevin. For a moment it looks like she’s going to reach in, for him or them he doesn’t know, but then her eyes flick to his arched back, to the steel coming up to cover claws and fangs, and backs off with a sigh.

“Oh _Kevin_ ….”

~~

Osmosians nest communally. They’re built for it, wired for it, to be crowded in with sisters and cousins all on nests of their own. To have kin or nestmates to guard their young in those brief times their mates aren’t there to take on the job. It’s important, to have someone who smells and tastes like you, like your brother, like family, to feel secure. Safe.

Lone dams don’t last.

Kevin trusts this team with his life, but he does not trust them with his eggs.

By the time Argit shows up on the ship (have they gone back to Earth? Or did he fly out to them? Kevin doesn’t know, nobody is telling him) he’s an absolute wreck. He hasn’t slept in nearly a week, mind a constant loop of fears of pests, predators, poachers that his mental illness would’ve had going anyway but that’s only worsened by how _isolated_ he feels, alone against a galaxy of threats. For that same reason he hasn’t eaten, or drank- unwilling to move away from his eggs enough to get what the others leave for him, while they’re afraid to come any closer for fear of attack. Add to that the eggs drawing the energy they need to grow from him, and his refusal to either leave to use the facilities or soil his nest, and what bares its teeth at Argit is a thinning, pained, paranoid mass of predator.

The fact he only briefly startles says more about the sort’ve things he’s been through than anything else, ever.

“Damn, Earthboy,” he says, keeping out of swiping range as he looks in at everything, visibly taking stock of the situation, “pop out a few more why don’t you?” Kevin bares more teeth.

“If you have a problem, feel free to leave,” he snarls. Argit doesn’t. He just yawns, a wide thing that shows off every one of his too damn many teeth, picks up the plate of food sitting beside him, and moves it within Kevin’s reach like there’s no threat at all. The fact Kevin only bristles with a low growl rather than snapping at him says there probably isn’t. Or at least not much. 

“Just saying, how the fuck did you fit all of them?” In lieu of answering, Kevin snatches up the plate and digs in like a man dying. Which is an actual concern, and the way Argit heaves a sigh of relief proves he damn well knows it. “How did you fit all of them and _not notice_?”

With heavy breathes, Kevin licks the plate clean. For a moment he just, holds onto it. It smells like Argit, and while that’s not as good as, say, having Helen there with a nest of her own, it’s a lot better than Rook, or even the Tennysons. There’s eight years of history there, five of which comes with nothing but reliability, trust, and affection.

“Was kinda busy wanting to eat everyone,” he eventually says, sliding the plate back towards him. “Was a stressful time.”

“I’m sure. Really, the way you all reproduce is just a mess.” The banter is familiar, the scent is familiar, the taste of his energy is familiar, all hardwired in for years passed anything he has with the Tennysons. Heck, with how close their species are tied it may even be hardwired genetically for Kevin at this point. Whatever the cause, his hackles begin to lower, and while he still eyes Argit warily he begins to relax for the first time in what feels like forever. 

“Not all of us can be marsupials, Hedgehog.” 

“I’m just saying, it’d be easier for everybody if they were.”

~~

It takes what feels like ages, but by the start of the next day Argit has settled into the den. The change is sudden and blatant. Kevin may not quite trust him with his life yet, but he does trust him with his eggs and out of nowhere he’s sleeping again. Eating well. Keeping hydrated. Actually _leaving the nest_ for the three minutes it takes to use the bathroom and come back.

Not more than once every two or three days, but it’s progress.

Most strikingly, now that he has back-up he’s much less stand-offish. His mane still bristles when the others come too close, even his beloved Zed regarded with the suspicion of any predator around another’s nest, but he no longer swipes or snaps if they push his boundaries, no longer projects threat at every shadow. It feels like the whole ship is calmer once they can sit in the hall and have actual discussions with him again.

~~

They’re still on the stupid roadtrip, because once Ben had realized Kevin wasn’t leaving his den come Hell or high water he’d talked the others into it. Which means news and such is being ferried back to Earth so everyone can happily know Kevin hasn’t starved yet. Unfortunately, it means information is being ferried through the Tennysons and Rook.

“Come on, Kev, just one! To send back to Manny.” Kevin narrows his eyes at Ben, then his phone.

“Hedgehog? If he takes so much as a single picture of my babies, kill him.”

“Sure thing, Ravrsa.”

~~

He and Argit sit up in the dead of night, Argit lain along Kevin’s hip, watching as the final hints of light from the largest of the eggs goes out. 

It’s been coming for the past week, first one side of the egg dimming and then the other. Neither is surprised to have it happen. Osmosians mutate easily and it’s easy for something to go wrong in the egg. Losses are common, and doubly so with twins, who have to fight for space while feeding off each other as much as their dam. Still, it doesn’t stop little, mournful noises from sneaking out their muzzles.

“Shame,” Argit says, before shutting his eyes, breathing deeply, and forcing his attention back on the rest of the clutch. Infant death is also the norm in his own species, but generally one doesn’t get the chance to get attached first. Erinaens hardly know they’re pregnant before they’re giving birth and losing kits, and it’s no preparation for losing eggs so far into brooding. Kevin twists over on himself to butt his head against Argit’s.

“Only one out of seven. Not bad so far.” So far. He purrs, nudges Argit until he nudges back, and then pulls away.

After a quick scan of the remaining, he takes the dead egg up in his hand and begins the task of eating it.

~~

They only lose the one. 

After five weeks of brooding, the eggs slowly begin to crumble away, encouraged by Kevin, Argit, and Zed all the way. Within a few hours- during which the others come to see what all the ruckus is about and are for the first time in a month driven back by a snarling Kevin- there’s six blobby white grubs amassed in the nest, slowly absorbing the remains of their former homes.

At no point has Kevin ever looked so absolutely enraptured by anything. Even Argit is immediately fawning over them with affectionate chirps. They can’t even be blamed, there’s something endlessly charming about the featureless little things that don’t even seem to have a shape besides ‘blob’- and that just makes them all the cuter.

Ben tries to take a picture from the middle of the hall.

Argit still manages to quill him.

~~

“They squeak!”

“Yeah.”

“How?! They don’t have mouths! They don’t have _anything_!”

“Except, apparently, the ability to squeak.”

“It makes no sense!”

“Ben, no crises around the babies.”

~~

After four days of Kevin and Argit essentially having the grubs to themselves. Gwen is finally allowed to come partially into the den to socialize with them.

Rook and Ben are not.

~~

“I will have you know my babies are _very_ talented!” Gwen bites her lip to keep from laughing at the mild affront in Kevin’s face.

“They’re _blobs_.”

“ _Talented_ blobs.”

“You _had_ to get him started, Red.” Off to the side, Argit tuts, using his tail to help a grub trying to make the epic journey into his lap. It isn’t far, but for something only slightly faster than a particularly hurried snail that at three times hatching weight is still maybe two and a half pounds at best, it may as well be a five mile trek through snow.

“Seriously, watch this!” Kevin reaches over and grabs the jug of water Gwen had brought along in the constant bid to keep eight people alive, pouring a small amount into the bottom of the plate he’d licked clean four minutes ago. With a degree of care and gentleness most would’ve never expected from him, he lifts one of the grubs settled on his side, booming comfort at their annoyed squeaking, and settles it on the plate.

Nothing happens for several long seconds, before slowly the water begins to disappear as if being soaked up by a sponge. Gwen stares. Kevin beams. Argit ignores the lot of them in favor of chittering encouragement at the earlier mentioned explorer.

“I don’t know what to say, Kevin, I really don’t.”

“Say my babies are talented.”

“No. I don’t know what that was, but it wasn’t a _talent_.”

Kevin blows a raspberry at her.

~~

Kevin-the-parent sleeps a lot more than Kevin-the-not-parent ever did, which makes sense when you consider that even now he’s the grubs’ main food source and that there’s six of the voracious little things. In action, this means that when anyone comes over to speak to him odds are very good they’re going to get Argit instead, ‘standing guard’ so Kevin can get some shut-eye.

“Ben and Gwen want to know if Kevin is going to be naming the children or if, quote, “he is just going to refer to them as ‘my babies’ forever”.” Argit shrugs, tearing into his share of Rook’s by now traditional food offering.

“He says we can’t until they settle into their adolescent shapes. Besides, half the time you can’t tell them apart anyway, so we may as well wait until we can tell which one we’re talking about at any one time.” Rook hums to himself, looking around Argit into the den. Kevin is curled up tight in there, sleeping soundly, with a motionless grub settled about anywhere they could balance themselves.

“Does he know when that will happen?” Another shrug.

“Your guess is as good as mine. He says they’re still too small and, I really don’t know enough to argue.” None of them do, that’s the problem. Even now Kevin bristles at the idea of having another Osmosian that isn’t kin on his ship, and the species is famously tightlipped when it comes to information about their children. Even what _had_ been known to outsiders has been deliberately destroyed by the Osmosians and otherwise lost to time.

“Well, he should be happy to know we are finally heading back to Earth.” Argit chuckles.

“I take it Red’s classes are starting back up?” With a laugh of his own, Rook smiles at him.

“Actually Manny, Helen, and Alan threatened to take out the Plumber’s base if Ben did not get off his butt and get their Osmosians home.” The resulting snort is loud enough to almost wake Kevin, Argit immediately reaching back to pat his tail in reassurance.

“I knew I liked them.”

~~

They don’t get back to Earth before the grubs pupate. Less than two days before they enter the Sol System they all make pupa remarkably similar to Kevin’s out of something that superficially looks like bone. If they all didn’t know better they’d think he’d just started over with bigger eggs. It’s this that Kevin’s team gets as their first view of the clutch. Manny, apparently a baby person despite all assumptions, is immediately smitten. Helen and Alan are merely charmed. All of them immediately receive the level of access it’d taken Gwen ages to achieve and that Ben and Rook still haven’t.  
If nothing else at least Cooper gets to join them out in the hall.

~~

Nothing much happens at that point. With the Amalgams around Argit gets to actually leave Kevin’s side for more than ten minutes at a time. The relationship Kevin and Alan have been patching up makes even more progress now there are niblings to check in on. Even the usual Bellwood criminals and supervillains seem to be taking a break. Grandpa Max says it’s because they’ve heard Kevin’s got a clutch and are scared to piss him off while he’s nesting.

Given that the one person to cause trouble during this period prompts Kevin to leave Manny in charge and step away from his babies just long enough to split the man from stem to stern and drag the body back to the nest? That’s probably the intelligent choice.

~~

It’s not long after that that the pupa break open. Or, more, crumble away, as seems to be the Osmosian way. The whole of the teams are alerted via text message and, finally, So. Many. Pictures. By the time the people who don’t have superspeed (damnit Helen) have arrived on the scene all six are safely free of their shells and gnawing on what’s left of Kevin’s latest victim. Kevin, Helen, and Argit are all cooing over them as they do.

Everyone knew going in that Osmosian children didn’t necessarily look like, well, anything. Kevin’d had to explain that back when he pupated, that their juvenile and adolescent shapes were determined by the shape of whoever they dealt with as grubs. But they’re still a little surprised that none of them ended up looking human. Two look more like Argit than anything, maneless Erinaen toddlers- one a dark grey-black like Kevin’s scutes, the other a deep brown-red, each with amber eyes. The others are more blatantly Kevin’s children- little quadrupedal versions of their father in shades from black to golden brown, with eyes ranging from gold to green to blue, all covered from shoulder to hip in what Kevin calls ‘baby down’.

“Okay, my question,” Ben asks, squeezing in beside the corpse and _finally_ getting to pull a baby into his lap, “does this mean you’re going to name them so we can stop calling them ‘the grubs’?”

“Chicks, now.”

“You know what I mean!”

~~

Nathaniel Kwarrel  
Erika Grace  
Casey Bernard  
Cyril Francis  
Jesse Felicia  
Gloria Elizabeta

“Two of those children are E. Levins.”

“Look, if I suffer they suffer. If I hadn’t run out of ‘E’s there’d be more.”

~~

The chicks make up for the solid seven months Kevin spent more-or-less trapped at the nest by taking all of three days to figure out this whole ‘limb’ thing they have going on now, and once they know how to use their legs they are unstoppable. One day it’s wobbly steps from one edge of the nest to the other, and the next Erika and Gloria are scaling everything in sight while their brothers and sister dart around the ground like ferrets.

The decision is made that the nest will no longer do. They need more space to run and climb and play in.

Kevin’s having to _live_ with these six rambunctious children has nothing to do with it, obviously.

~~

There’s a big argument about where, precisely, Kevin is going to set up shop. He’s not comfortable raising his kids around a load of humans, which makes sense given his history and just what he and the chicks look like, but also there aren’t many places in Undertown with the space for a large clutch like this that haven’t already been claimed by other families.

In the end he teams up with Argit, Helen, Manny, Alan, and Cooper, packing up the chicks and Zed and settling down on a rural property out towards the mountains.

It wouldn’t hurt to have them closer, but otherwise it’s a fine arrangement that works for everybody.


	3. Chapter 3

Fastforward to two days prior to the chick’s first birthday. Kevin says it’s not going to be a large affair, family only. Manny, Cooper, and Helen are already in the process of putting up decorations by the time the Tennysons and Rook arrive for the weekend.

They put their things in two of the bedrooms, spare ever since Kevin started digging out an entire tunnel system under the main house, just like they have so many times before, and head out to find the rest of the family. Avoiding being in Helen’s way is just a bonus.

Finding them out in a field is no surprise, especially since there’s a small stand of trees in it. One of the ones Argit has put small buildings in for his own use. And, it seems, the use of the children. It’s no surprise to see Erika and Gloria up in the branches with him, nor to see Jesse and Casey- respectively leaner and heavier than their similarly Ossy-like brothers- sunning in the grass with Zed standing guard over them. What _is_ a surprise is the sight of Nate and Cyril working their way up the trunk of one tree claw by claw.

“When did they start doing that?” Kevin and Alan look up almost as one, flashing the others grins as they scoot over on the fence line to give them space to perch.

“Last month?” Alan says with a bit of uncertainty. “Jesse and Casey gave up after a day, but the other two are dead set on mastering this whole climbing thing.”

“Well, everyone needs a hobby I guess.” Gwen settles in between Kevin and Rook, Ben beside Alan. “Nobody’s worried about them falling?” 

“A little,” Kevin says, though he doesn’t look it, “they’re durable little things, like all Ossys, plus the tree’s not that tall and Argit’s right there.” True, the bottom branch is only ten or so feet from the ground, and Argit is right there on it. As they watch, Gloria lets off a massive yawn that quickly spreads to Erika, then their brothers on the trunk, then their siblings on the ground, and ends with Zed in a display of cute that may well have been coordinated if they’re anything like their father.

“Okay, I’ll give you one thing, Kev,” Ben says as they all bite back an aw and silently wish they’d had cameras ready for that, “you made some cute kids.” For his part, Kevin grins widely, large, sharp teeth flashing in the sun.

“Damn right I did.”


End file.
